Pioneering project will enable start-ups to accelerate time to market for innovative health-related products and services.

aescuvest and EIT Health announce the launch of the first pan-European equity crowdfunding platform for European healthcare companies today: aescuvest.eu will be the number one such platform dedicated to foster and fund innovations from European start-ups and SMEs in an end-to-end digital process, and allow companies to promote campaigns and EU citizens to invest across borders. The platform will give both, retail and institutional investors access to best-in-class companies in the core health sectors biotechnology, medical technology and digital health. As prospectus-based security offerings, investment opportunities went through a thorough approval process. The start of the first campaign is expected in Q4 2018.
– We are very proud to have been chosen by EIT Health as the partner for this trailblazing project, that is in itself innovative in the financing and crowdfunding sector, commented Dr Patrick Pfeffer, CEO & Founder of aescuvest.
– EIT Health activities are needs-driven and feature the engagement of future users and patients in the development, testing and scaling of solutions in co-creation environments. It is the goal of aescuvest.eu to build a bridge between European citizens, healthcare professionals and healthcare innovators.

Jan-Philipp Beck, CEO of EIT Health, added: Crowdfunding stops at country borders these days. The cooperation with aescuvest.eu enables EIT Health to provide a unique service that will attract lots of start-ups and clearly differentiate us against any other accelerator. aescuvest.eu gives strong visibility, helps creating a bigger customer base, higher funding volume and therefore increased chances to succeed and to create impact. aescuvest's specialisation, expert due diligence and excellent digital reach of professionals within the sector, combined with EIT Health’s incomparable access to hundreds of innovative companies, offers investors an exciting investment opportunity.

EIT Health is a network of best-in-class health innovators backed by the EU. By collaborating across borders, EIT Health delivers solutions to enable European citizens to live longer, healthier lives. To achieve these goals, EIT Health connects all relevant healthcare players across European borders – making sure to include all sides of the “knowledge triangle” so that innovation can happen at the intersection of research, education, and business. EIT Health brings together healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, and citizens, offering them new opportunities and resources. The crowdfunding platform aescuvest.eu gives the offering further breadth with a unique tool that addresses financing, marketing and sales in order to help the most promising health start-ups to scale up their businesses across Europe.
Dr Pfeffer added: Crowdfunding gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to attract the attention of investors and customers and to benefit from their willingness to provide funds, knowledge, and widespread contacts. On aescuvest.eu, all of this is offered in equity over a fixed contract period. Companies will be able to raise EUR 1 million to 10 million with a standardised prospectus, both allowing for cross-border financing under the European passporting regime. It is possible to raise between EUR 500,000 and 1 million in capital, without issuing a prospectus.

aescuvest.eu will enable investors to participate in handpicked projects that have been reviewed by an independent investment committee. It provides the possibility to take advantage of early stage investments in the largest economic sector of Europe that offers stable and sustained growth, not at least due to an ageing society. The co-owner model is structured to enable retail investments alongside business angel and venture capital funding. Open to companies from across the EU, the initial funding focus will be on Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

aescuvest is Europe’s first crowdfunding platform exclusively dedicated to the health sector, a dynamic market that is large in size, shows sustained growth rates and is driven by innovation. The platform offers retail investors, business angels and venture capitalists opportunities to make entrepreneurial investments in a promising market with above average returns. For start-up companies it serves as an independent launch pad to finance and market smart ideas, with the potential to directly target up to 550,000 healthcare professionals as well as general public all over Europe. Based in the financial hub of Frankfurt, www.aescuvest.de was started as a platform for crowdfunding campaigns for Germany in 2015, bringing innovations in medtech, biotech, health service, digital health and health rentals to life. In 2018, the start of www.aescuvest.eu marked the premier of the first platform to offer cross-border equity crowdfunding for healthcare companies and investors all over Europe: www.aescuvest.eu

EIT Health is one of the largest healthcare initiatives worldwide. Its goal is to sustainably advance the fundamentals of healthcare and thus promote suitable future conditions for healthy living, active ageing and improved wellbeing of people across Europe. EIT Health leverages the expertise of around 150 member organisations from the pharma, diagnostics and med tech fields, payers, insurers, research institutions and universities. As one of the EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), the initiative benefits from some of the world’s best-in-class academic and research organisations and offers both higher education and business expertise. By investing in Europe’s best entrepreneurial talents and ideas, EIT Health fosters the development and commercialization of smart product and service solutions in the health sector, addressing the challenges posed by demographic change and ageing societies. Headquartered in Munich (Germany), EIT Health has six co-location centres in London (UK/Ireland), Stockholm (Scandinavia), Barcelona (Spain), Paris (France), Mannheim and Heidelberg (Germany/Switzerland) and Rotterdam (Belgium/Netherlands), as well as regional “EIT Health InnoStars” clusters consisting of industry partners, academia, and health providers linked to seven regions in six countries – Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Italy and Wales. www.eithealth.eu